H R ole Kulet's Blossoms of the Savannah: Plot Analysis and Characters: A Guide Book to H R ole Kulet's Blossoms of the Savannah, #1

By Jorges P. Lopez

Modern Literature has diversified into comparative literature and African Literature has become quite important in this field. This is because it not only tries to rewrite a lot about Africa which was biased according to Eurocentric writers but also because it incorporates a lot of issues uniquely African. These may have to do with the traditional African Societies as well as the evolution of new so-called modern African societies, more oriented to the west or Christianized living. African writers have taken differing poles as far as this is concerned. H R ole Kulet becomes important here because he is one of those modernized African writers with quite some lore to his name. Any critic of African or Comparative literature will therefore find him an interesting, sometimes an enlightening read. Blossoms of the Savannah is a novel that examines African traditions is so far as some need to be done away with while others need to be retained. This criticism book examines the PLOT ANALYSIS and the CHARACTERS of Blossoms of the Savannah to give insight to the connectedness of the story as well as the crafting of the characters, their logic and role and how these two issues help demonstrate the coming of age for the African novel and the nature of modern African writers - those who have not been sung the way Ngugi and Achebe have,

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jorges P. Lopez
• Release date: Nov 30, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223056539

Jorges P. Lopez

Jorges P. Lopez has been teaching Literature in high schools in Kenya and Communication at The Cooperative University in Nairobi. He has been writing Literary Criticism for more than fifteen years and fiction for just over ten years. He has contributed significantly to the perspective of teaching English as a Second Language in high school and to Communication Skills at the college level. He has developed humorous novellas in the Jimmy Karda Diaries Series for ages 9 to 13 which make it easier for learners of English to learn the language and the St. Maryan Seven Series for ages 13 to 16 which challenge them to improve spoken and written language. His interests in writing also spill into Poetry, Drama and Literary Fiction. He has written literary criticism books on Henrik Ibsen, Margaret Ogola, Bertolt Brecht, John Steinbeck, John Lara, Adipo Sidang' and many others.

Book preview

Introduction

Following its predecessors, Reading Margaret Ogola’s The River and the Source, Reading Bertolt Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Reading John Steinbeck’s The Pearl and Reading Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, this book embraces the design of that quartet. It shows you how to deal with Blossoms of the Savannah through comprehension questions to arrive at an understanding that allows you to communicate with both Ole Kulet and his critics or critics of similar texts. This advances from the researched, tried and proven theory that literature students underachieve because their approach to literary texts and their presentation of answers is wanting; a student has to know a text fully to discuss it and present personal opinions. To do so, one needs to read the text and consult other critics to form a balanced opinion. Similarly, many students study thoroughly but still fail to do well because their presentation of ideas is inadequate.

This guide book lets you discern the elements of literature – plot, theme, character and style – on your own. It helps you understand Blossoms of the Savannah so as to grasp the plot, infer themes, characters and style without necessarily consulting a teacher. To do so, follow the questions at the end of every section and answer them truthfully. Where this is difficult, go back to the particular section and reread it keenly before continuing.

This text contains a series of twelve questions after every section. The first set of four questions helps you identify important facts from what is read. The next set helps you interpret these facts in order to see their significance. This should help you see the connectedness of the plot and also understand characters thus making the novelist’s intention clearer. The last set of questions helps you apply - label - what is interpreted, that is, see what has been interpreted in terms of themes, character traits or elements of style because, after all, this is the point of studying any literature text. This is what an examiner will ask.

To do this, it is important to understand that the first question should lead to the fifth and the fifth to the ninth. The second should lead to the sixth and the sixth to the tenth and so on. By the time all the questions have been answered, the elements of literature you are meant to derive from this text should become obvious. For the teacher using this text, these sets of questions help you test the student’s understanding of the plot before proceeding to a detailed analysis. The second and third set of questions indeed help the student in this analysis so that by the time the student is through with the plot, all that is required is a collation of the elements already discovered. This should help the student in debating themes, character traits and elements of style discussed after the plot analysis of the book.

This book also contains a detailed guide on how to go about context and essay questions and how to interpret, plan and write down your answers with a view to earning all the marks given for every question. This should help the student to see how many marks have been earned and where marks have been lost in an exam situation. It is encouraged that the student and the teacher do this practically in class because it helps the student to think like an examiner.

The Author

A prolific writer of fiction, Henry Rupes ole Kulet has enjoyed a wide writing career spanning close to fifty years. Born in 1946 at Enkare Ngusur village, he attended Siyiapei Primary school and later went to Kilgoris for his Upper Primary education before proceeding to Narok High School. It was here that he discovered his writing talent after an article he wrote – which was inspired by President Jomo Kenyatta’s visit to their school – caught attention after being published in a major newspaper. He studied for a diploma in personnel management before being employed by the Kenya farmers Association. ,

Ole kulet has been a champion of both Maasai culture and environment capturing their cultural and historical experiences. Each successive novel reveals some intricacy of Maasai culture. His characters exhibit existential problems to do with the cultural clash between the old and the new. They show the attempt to live and be relevant in a changing society, especially because the Maasai have been able to largely stick to their culture and traditions in the face of debilitating colonialism and westernization. Many of his novels have also used the girl child as an agent of change in an emerging society. Ole Kulet first arrived on the literary scene in 1971 with the publication of Is it Possible? He was then twenty-five years old. He followed this with To Become a Man in 1972, The Hunter (1985), Daughter of Maa (1987), Moran No More (1990) Bandits of Kibi (1999) and Blossoms of the Savannah (2009).

His novels have been read and studied near and far. Is it Possible and To Become a Man have been set books in East Africa. The two novels have also been translated into French, German and Swedish. His novel Vanishing Herds won the 2013 Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature following in the footsteps of Blossoms of the Savannah which